Honey Hunters
by sTiltzykinz
Summary: Sera and Serena persuade Aria to take them to Messhina Valley, where they are attacked by feral Hornets. Nobody realized that Aria dropped her sword down the cliff until they needed it...
1. Chapter 1

**Haha! First published fanfic! I was gonna publish it sooner, but I was busy like hell.. T.T**

**Sorry if it's a bit off, my writing juices have been running dry recently…**

**Ah, well. READ IT! No offense.**

"Pleeease..?"

"Guys—no."

Sera and Serena were making their huge, periwinkle, puppy-dog eyes again, much to Aria's discomfort. She turned to their pleading faces, and frowned.

"I can't really collect honey from Hornets while protecting you. And besides, we can always get honey from Sting and Flutter."

"I got kinda tired of their honey," Sera said.

"Me too," Serena added."And," she continued, ignoring Aria's _absolutely-no!_ face, "Roy told me that you stayed in Padova Mountains alone for three days. So protecting us is gonna be a snap!"

Aria dropped her rainbow-colored waterpot.

"He _what?_" She shrieked. "Look, half the things Roy tells everyone is a lie. I know he's older than us, but still, he's _crazy_."

"Can we still go with you?" Sera whined.

"NO."

"Aww, man."

The twins looked at each other in exasperation. There was no way they wouldn't pass this opportunity to see Messhina Valley. No way! Even if they had to take Aria down in a wooden sword fight or sneak into the apparently haunted clinic at midnight!

Suddenly, a lightbulb flicked in Serena's head. If she figured it out, Sera would be several steps ahead.

"Hey, Aria…"

"_What?_"

"You like pudding, don't you?"

Aria just gave the twins a very confused stare.

"Uhh, yeah…"

"You like our pudding better than anyone else's!" Sera yelled.

Aria's jaw dropped. How did they suddenly start talking about… pudding? And furthermore, since when did she start liking the twins' cooking?

Serena rushed on. "So since we got tired of your Hornets' honey, we just decided that we'll get some ourselves!"

"We're gonna get new ho-ney!" Sera sang.

Oh.

"No way!" Aria snapped. "If you're going, then I'm coming too. I'm not letting you go there alone."

Sweet victory. The twins high-fived.

Aria facepalmed herself.

**En fin. Next chapter's coming soon.**


	2. Chapter 2: Run!

**Order up!**

**I can't really upload too often... sorry.**

**Keep reading!**

"We're here!" Sera yelled.

"Welcome to the place I've never brought you guys," Aria said, still a bit disgruntled

"Here, Max!" Serena whistled.

Aria's Silver Wolf came trotting over to the group. Aria named him after Max, the twins' uncle.

"We're not riding Max up the mountain. It's too steep," Aria said, taking her shortsword out of her bag. "We're taking the normal way."

"Walking?" Sera whined.

"Duh," Serena muttered.

"No complaining. You _made_ me bring you here," Aria said, hitching the sword in its sheath "Now, do you remember those rules I told you?"

"Listen to whatever you say," Sera recited.

"Don't make the Hornets mad," Serena added.

"If something goes wrong, run-"

"Watch your step-"

"Okay, okay, we get it. Can we go now? Please?"

"Sheesh! Fine."

Within twelve seconds of reaching the lowest peak of the mountain, Sera found the largest Hornet's nest in the place.

"It's taller than me!" she yelled.

"Get out of the way!" Aria snapped, knocking Serena over with her harvest basket.

"I want to leave before you guys-"

"Oh no, Sera, DON'T EAT THAT!" Serena suddenly squeaked.

"I couldn't help it," Sera sheepishly said, sucking on a finger that was covered in… honey!

"Uh-oh," Aria muttered, feeling the wall of Hornets closing in around them.

No one moved. The Hornets kept buzzing closer.

"RUN!" Sera screamed.

Screaming, the girls ran for their lives, until Aria stopped.

"Oh, right!"

She reached for her sword. Serena crashed into Aria, sending her sword flying.

"NO!"

The shortsword toppled down the cliff.

"SERENA, YOU-"

A piercing scream broke Aria's rage. Sera was trapped in brambles, and a Hornet was going full speed for her.

Aria got out her Fireball spell book. It was in horrible shape, but it would be enough to knock the Hornet off course.

Fireballs shot out of Aria's outstretched hands. One hit the attacking Hornet. It flared up and disappeared.

"Sera!" Serena rushed forward to pull her sister out of the thorns. She was scratched a bit, but still fine.

"Don't stop, keep running!" Aria exclaimed, swatting two Hornets with a stick.

They kept running, until they hit the side of a huge wall. They were trapped.

"Help!" Sera cried, for all the good it would do.


	3. Chapter 3: Message

**Ugh... my writing juices are _really_ running dry now...**

**Keep reading...  
**

A hand grabbed the back of Serena's dress. Sera screamed and dove in the direction of the hand. Max followed.

They were dragged into a tiny cave in the rocks. Aria was the one who dragged them, with the hand that wasn't holding a glowing ball.

"Sssh!" she whispered.

Trembling, the girls covered each others' mouths while watching every move of the Hornet at the cave entrance. It hovered for a moment, then left the cave it thought was empty.

Serena let out a breath.

"We shouldn't have gone here!" Sera wailed. "We're sorry, Aria, we should have listened…"

"No time for that!" Aria replied. "I'll gnaw your ankles off when we get back to the village."

Serena butted in. "How?"

"That's the problem. Since…"

Aria gave Serena a nasty look.

"Even if we had the sword and Aria's magic, It's too risky to go to the village," Sera said, trying to be logical. "The Hornets would follow us there and infest the whole village."

"Big words, "Aria mused.

Max whimpered.

"Max!" Aria jumped up. "That's it!

"What's it?" the twin asked, nonplussed.

"I'll send a message through Max! The Hornets probably won't follow him, they're scared of wolves! Sera, give me that leaf in your hair!"  
"This? Why?"

"Just give it!"

Aria used a stiff twig to scratch onto the leaf.

HELP!

StUCk in MESHina VaLLee

Max knOws tHe waY

HUrrY!

Aria

Sera

Serena

She clipped the leaf to Max's collar.

"Hurry, boy!" he called out.


	4. Chapter 4: Rescue

**Two more chapters! Yay!**

**Thank you 741852AuthorNicolaStarlaLili for reviewing!**

**Read on!**

**- .-**

Mana just finished checking (well, taste-testing) the kids' work from that afternoon. Salmon sashimi. Leann's was phenomenal, Orland's needed more work, and so on.

As she cleared up the plates, she remembered how good Kyle was at making sashimi.

_Kyle._

Without bothering to put away the last washed plate, Mana curled up in the chair Aria usually occupied. A single sunbeam struck the polished wood surface. She missed Kyle so much, it made her cry sometimes. _Where__ was he now? would he ever come back?_

A scratching on the front door jerked Mana from her thoughts. Wrenching open the door, she found Max the wolf, wet and muddy.

"Max? But, where's Aria?"

Max scratched a leaf off his collar.

When Mana read it, she almost fainted.

No one seemed to mind that night would soon turn Messhina Valley into a black sheet. Armed with lanterns, and for some, swords, half the village trooped to the mountain where the hornets lived.

"Oh, I knew something bad was going to happen," Rosalind muttered, searching the bushes for the missing girls.

"This must be the Hornet' nest that went wild," Barrett said thoughtfully. "Leonel, don't touch it."

"Touch what?" Leonel said innocently.

The search went on. Bushes were checked, rocks were rolled aside, and nothing was found.

"This is it. We're never gonna find them!" Cammy wailed.

Meanwhile, in the cave, Aria suddenly jumped up. She recognized that voice...

Without thinking, Aria ran outside.

"Aria,come back!" Serena screamed.

Aria kept running, sweat starting to roll down her face. Then she crashed into a purple cape and lots of pink hair.

"Alicia!"

"Aria! Hey, Mana, I've found her!"

Sera and Serena caught up, panting. When they looked up to see their parents, they collapsed into their arms, sobbing.

Orland looked away, pretending to retch."Blech."

The rest of the kids smiled secretively, hiding something behind their backs.

Later that evening, the girls, some friends and their parents were holed up in the clinic, even though they insisted that they were fine, and all they wanted to do was go home and hit the hay.

"Hey," Ray said. "I remember you girls saying all you wanted to do was camp out near the stream and go fishing."

"Well, if we'd told you the truth, you wouldn't have let us come!" Sera said.

"I'd still let you go, but I'd let Ray come with you," Rosalind said. "Honestly, you girls scared us to death!"

"Sorry," the three sighed.

"Are we still in trouble...?" Aria asked.

"Well..." Mana considered it for a moment.

"No they aren't!" Leonel interrupted. he reached for a drawstring bag at his feet. " Don't you remember what you were there for?"

They all peered into the bag. Inside were jars of honey.

"THANK YOU LEONEL!" Sera and Serena said together, flinging their arms around Leonel's neck. He turned a bright shade of pink. "The others helped me."

"Guess we'll just give these to the school," Aria said. "We weren't the only ones who got this, we need to share too!"

"Yeah!" the twins said.

"Well, off to bed everyone!" Natalie said. "You need rest, what with your adventure and all."

Through the sound of the adults saying good night, Aria told the twins "Not one word of the magic I used in Messhina valley. Not one."

* * *

**AUGH! It's finally done!**

**Sorry if it's a bit sloppy, it was rushed. I might fix it up sometime...**

**Thanks!  
**


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